1990 Urban Design Plan — a catalyst for investment

By Susan Moffat-Thomas, Swiss Bear Downtown Development Corporation

Published: Saturday, October 19, 2013 at 04:28 PM.

Plan recommendations were intended to guide development and redevelopment decisions by the public and private sector over the long term, providing a unified sense of direction for the future. The implementation and strategies recommended were meant to suggest appropriate and effective steps to ensure implementation of the plan, the final form might vary somewhat from the Plan’s recommendation, but shouldn’t be considered if it compromised the Plan itself or prevented it from being endorsed in principle.

The $61,000 spent on developing the 1990 Urban Design Plan leveraged millions of dollars of investment in new construction and rehabilitation projects. In the early 1990’s, projects in excess of $12 Million were underway, including two new waterfront hotels, a new court house annex, business expansions and the First Baptist Family Life Center. The Urban Design Plan was the catalyst for the momentum and completion of priority projects throughout the decade.

Latest in a continuing series on the transformation of downtown New Bern.

In January 1989, the Kellenberger Historical Foundation notified Swiss Bear their application for a $25,000 grant to assist with funding of an Urban Design Plan was approved with the condition the City would provide matching funds which the City agreed to do at an April Board of Aldermen meeting.

To insure broad representation of the community, nonprofit organizations and area businesses and each Ward, they appointed 23 people to serve on the Urban Design Plan Steering Committee and Susan L. Moffat was appointed chairwoman.

Thoughout the next six months the Steering Committee researched and sent letters to twenty five firms requesting their participation (RFP). Of the seventeen replies, five firms were interviewed with a final requirement of a summary and fee. The Committee’s final selection was Land Design Research, Inc. (LDR) of Columbia, Md.

On Nov. 14, the Steering Committee presented their recommendation to the Board of Aldermen for approval. The recommendation led to a confrontation between board members. Robert Raynor, Don McDowell and Max Freeze voted against the committee’s recommendation, citing they felt their Wards weren’t represented adequately in the process, even though the representatives they appointed from their respective wards served on the committee. With a final four to three vote, the city approved hiring LDR for $50,000. Development of the Plan began in January 1990.

In March 1990, Swiss Bear discussed expanding the plan to take in the Broad Street corridor from East Front to First Street which included the Five Points commercial area. Encouraging investment in that corridor was important and the increased traffic flow downtown and across the two bridges, with continual opening and closings, was creating major traffic problems. If funding for a new bridge over the Neuse River required permanent removal of the Cunningham Bridge, the Broad Street corridor would be the primary access into downtown.

The additional cost ($11,000) to expand the Plan came from funds from the Union Point Project contributed by three local banks and Weyerhaeuser and $4,000 of Community Development Block Grant money.

To address the overriding concern that downtown should retain its distinctive “sense of place,”the LDR team spent a great deal of time extracting the elements that made downtown New Bern unique: many historic homes, a largely intact commercial area, its intimate scale, the close relationship to the water and Tryon Palace and worked to reinforce this traditional pattern throughout the plan.

The project/process received great community support and input beginning with a public meeting on Feb. 14 at the Sheraton Hotel, attended by several hundred people. Throughout the year, the process, one of openness, public forums and many meetings enriched development of the plan and refinement of the final product.

On Dec. 11, 1990, the city officially approved the New Bern Urban Design Master Plan as the official policy to be used in decisions on public/private development in the downtown and Five Points area. The packed courtroom, cheered when the final comprehensive 56 page Urban Design Plan was presented and approved by the Board of Aldermen, the culmination of the efforts of many businessmen and women, members of various organizations and interested citizens.

Highlights of the Plan:

Parking should be shared and interior lots reorganized to create additional parking spaces. To avoid the character of a commercial strip, parking should be removed from the front of buildings, especially along Broad, and placed behind buildings allowing for landscaped setbacks to create a more gracious image of the main entry into New Bern.

Special streetscape treatments with pedestrian lighting, benches, trash receptacles for retail streets; the riverwalk and “image” treatment along Broad needed a higher level of finish and include tree pits , important to the vitality and appearance of urban trees.

To reinforce and strengthen pedestrian connections to both water’s edge, sidewalks needed to continue down Craven and Middle Streets to the Trent River with improved crosswalks and amenities on Pollock and Tryon Palace Drive (now South Front Street) to strengthen the pedestrian connection to the Tryon Palace complex.

Core retail area vacant lots infilled with additional buildings to reinforce the shopping environment; ground floor retail and service uses with office and residential in upper stories.

The Five Points neighborhood needed a new direction and improved image with a major new development in the center of the neighborhood to put the heart back into this area.

Since the fate of the two bridges was under consideration by NCDOT, removal of the Neuse River Bridge would lessen through traffic and allow Broad Street to be developed into a more attractive gateway. Removal of the Trent River bridge should not be allowed as its removal would isolate the downtown too much.

The present waterfront trends should be encouraged in a manner that reinforces the existing view corridors, street edges and building scale. Development should be mixed use and encourage public access and activities. Open space and access to the waterfront all along both rivers within the downtown is important.

Plan recommendations were intended to guide development and redevelopment decisions by the public and private sector over the long term, providing a unified sense of direction for the future. The implementation and strategies recommended were meant to suggest appropriate and effective steps to ensure implementation of the plan, the final form might vary somewhat from the Plan’s recommendation, but shouldn’t be considered if it compromised the Plan itself or prevented it from being endorsed in principle.

The $61,000 spent on developing the 1990 Urban Design Plan leveraged millions of dollars of investment in new construction and rehabilitation projects. In the early 1990’s, projects in excess of $12 Million were underway, including two new waterfront hotels, a new court house annex, business expansions and the First Baptist Family Life Center. The Urban Design Plan was the catalyst for the momentum and completion of priority projects throughout the decade.